As I write this article, I have spent the last year as most of us have –– isolated, socially distanced and careful often times in fear or thinking about the unknown such as where did this virus come dfrom? Why…
Columns
Inland Art | Carmon Colangelo
by Paul Krainak • • Comments Off on Inland Art | Carmon Colangelo
Carmon Colangelo intervenes on the modern. Gestural abstraction, informal geometries, diaristic ephemera, surrealist afterimages, and architectonic montage all inform his practice. He fills work with happenstance, surfing through printmaking, drawing, painting and digital media to reconsider a principal birthright of…
Art & Justice | Natalie Jackson
by Clare Howard • • Comments Off on Art & Justice | Natalie Jackson
Natalie Jackson grew up understanding racial injustice. She lived in a home filled with powerful images that conveyed beauty, despair, fragility, strength and resolve. Her father, artist Preston Jackson, is a sculptor, musician and long-time faculty member at the Art…
Arts Beat | April 2021
by Clare Howard • • Comments Off on Arts Beat | April 2021
April 2: First Friday Studio Tours, 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.; locations include Peoria Art Guild, Contemporary Art Center, Studios on Sheridan, Wheel Art Pottery. For a complete list go to: https://www.peoria.org/event/first-friday/3865/ Now on permanent loan: Preston Jackson’s “Bronzeville to…
Reflections from an Existential Lens | Religion, Secularism, and the Meaning of Life, Part III
by Community Word Staff • • Comments Off on Reflections from an Existential Lens | Religion, Secularism, and the Meaning of Life, Part III
In David Hume’s “Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion,” three characters debate God’s existence. The character Demea represents rational theology and deductive argument—at least until the end, when he suddenly declares that “each man feels, in a manner, the truth of religion…
Heat Waves — In Red and Black | Designed to Fail: Texas’ Radically Deregulated Power Grid
by William Rau • • Comments Off on Heat Waves — In Red and Black | Designed to Fail: Texas’ Radically Deregulated Power Grid
The massive, multi-day electricity blackout in Texas this February vividly highlights the importance of reliable electricity during extreme heat or cold. The economic cost to Texas from days without power will be close to $200 billion, or $75 billion more…
Nature Rambles | Bloodroot
by Mike Miller • • Comments Off on Nature Rambles | Bloodroot
One of the first native plants I can remember becoming enamored with as a child was a spring wildflower called Bloodroot. What a name. The plant is full of a red sap that courses through its leaves, stem and roots.…
Serendipity | Life Lessons Learned
by Sandra Dempsey Post • • Comments Off on Serendipity | Life Lessons Learned
Boredom is not something that usually affects me. Some people have even commented I’m easily entertained. I take that as a compliment regardless of how it’s intended. When my three children were growing up and would complain about “nothing to…
West Peoria News | On the ballot
by Sharon McBride • • Comments Off on West Peoria News | On the ballot
These candidates in the City of West Peoria are currently running for office in the April 6 city council election: Ward 1, LeRoy Dohm, Jr.; Ward 2, Merlin “Rocky” Mathewson; Ward 3, John F. Siewert II and Clark Abraham; Ward…
The Lion’s Den | A Founding Father of Black (American) History
by Daniel McCloud • • Comments Off on The Lion’s Den | A Founding Father of Black (American) History
By the time you read this, we will have turned the page on February 2021 and thus turned the page on Black History Month. Once thought of as essential and necessary, many, including African Americans, have begun to question its…